Birthday Surprises
by Little Revolutionist Ace
Summary: Love and hate, frightening feelings, especially if trapped, struggling, beneath the surface' Djaq's birthday has come up and Will has planned a surprise for her. Djaq/Will fluff. Rated K


Authors Note: Why hello there. How are you all today? Just got back from camping and it was terrible. Our tent leaked so me and my big sister Lucy ended up sleeping in the car for two nights. Not so comfy.

I missed reading reviews _hint hint_

The quote from the summary came from Doctor Who - The Curse of Fenric!

Hope you enjoy it!

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Will Scarlett carefully flicked his penknife along a thin board of cherrywood, smoothing a rough surface. He had to make this _perfect._ Djaq's birthday was coming up, and he had been sworn to secrecy to not tell any of the lads about it. By now, she had probably forgotten telling him herself. He grinned, happy that it would be even more of a surprise.

He glanced over at the tree a few metres away. Near the bottom of the trunk he had kept a tally, counting the days until her birthday. There were only a few nights left until he would spring his surprise. He lifted it up to his eye level and blew some wood shavings off.

Opening the present, he was very careful not to drop thin slabs of wood, sewn together with parchment in between. A book. An empty book.

Will had walked in on Djaq scratching things into the dirt with the tip of her dagger. She had quickly rubbed it out with her foot, even though she knew that he couldn't read them.

Robin had taught him how to write his own name in english, and once he thought he had recognized it in one of Djaqs scrawls, but he had dismissed it as his imagination, not wanting to his hopes up.

The night before Djaq's date of birth, Robin was approached by Will. He was looking slightly uneasy, and kept checking around for other people, Djaq and Allan mainly, but just anyone.

"Can you write in Arabic?" Robin nodded, slightly puzzled.

"Can you show me how to write 'Djaq'?" Robin carefully scratched a few characters into the dirt by the fire. "Why do you want to know?"

Will stiffened. "No reason." He examined the writing carefully, commiting it to memory. Hurrying off to carve it into the front of the book he missed Robin's grin. he had known Will was going to show Djaq, and he hadn't written her name, but a quite different message.

"Much!" Will called. "We're going to go look for honey!" Much rattled his pots."Honey. What does that mean?" He spoke to his pots. "Bit too much _honey_ going on here.." He glared at the innocent pots.

Little did Much know, Djaq and Will only walked and talked on these expeditions. For two relatively quiet people they spoke a lot. About families, about their pasts, old friends and new ones. But never did they talk of the future, to scared of what it would bring.

After a few minutes of walking, when they were far enough away from camp not to be seen or heard, Will pulled out a parcel, wrapped in cleanish rags. Well, as clean as you can get in the outlaw's camp. He handed it to Djaq and drew her into a hug, whispering "Happy birthday." into her hair.

He reluctantly let go, so she could unwrap it. And when she did, she gasped. Tracing the beautifully carved Arabic symbols with her hand, looking suspiciously up at Will. "Who taught you to write this?" Will cringed, afraid of her being angry. "I asked Robin. He said that's how you wrote your name."

Djaq shook her head. "That is not my name."

Will frowned. "What is it then?"

She looked down and spoke. "It translates into english as ... I love you."

By the time she had got over her embarrassment and looked up, Will was sitting on a fallen log, with his head in his hands and his long legs splayed out absurdly in the leaves. What Djaq could see of his face was crimson.

"I can make a new cover if you like." His voice was slightly muffled, laced with embarrassment and almost undetectable hints of pain.

Djaq walked over and sat beside him, grinning and nudging his arm until he looked up, avoiding her eyes. "No." she said in her lilting accent. "I like this one. It's beautiful, thank you." She leaned over and impulsively kissed him on the cheek.

Will grinned, one of his rare, true smiles, and turned his body until he was completely facing her. "Robin knew." he commented casually. Dangerous undercurrents were bringing up secrets he had kept hidden to the surface. " I do love you. I love your silly voice." He paused to rub his arm where she had lightly hit him. " I love the way fight, like a man. Ferocious."

They were both grinning, and without evening noticing, Will had grasped her hands, and was overjoyed when she did not pull away, not rejecting him, as she had in many of dreams of attempting to tell her. He was shocked out of his revere by her voice.

"The way you fight, for justice and your honest loyalty. I love it. And you. Everything. The way you could have a life in Scarborough, in a house with walls, but you choose to stay, and fight for what is right."

She jumped up, quickly catching the book as it plummeted off her knees. She pulled Will up and wrapped her arms around him, tugging his face down and kissing him. It was a kiss of love, of promise and passion that had been concealed such a long time.

As each pulled away, only for the need to breathe, they rested their foreheads together, and could not help but to think, that just for a moment, everything was right in the world.

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Author: The 'dangerous undercurrents' bit I unashamedly stole from Doctor Who. I've been watching too much of it... Not that that's possible. Canon can go to somewhere bad, becuase nothing beats Djaq/Will fluff. It's soo adorable XD

~Ace!


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